1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile telecommunications device that can be set to a transmit-disabled mode which disables all wireless transmission by a wireless transmitter unit of the mobile telecommunications device, and more particularly, to such a mobile telecommunications device that improves ease-of-use for a user at the time of calling and at the time of terminating wireless communication.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent mobile telephone systems utilizing the PDC standard, for example, conduct zone management for incoming calls. Every time a mobile telephone unit changes zones, information of the mobile telephone unit is wirelessly transmitted from the mobile telephone unit to a control station via a base station. Moreover, wireless transmission by a mobile telephone unit is not limited to that which is caused by zone shifting but also occurs on other occasions, such as when an incoming call is received. Thus, owing to the nature of the mobile telephone system, wireless transmission from a mobile telephone unit to a base station arises not only when the user deliberately places a call but also on other occasions.
Moreover, today's mobile telephone units are generally equipped with various capabilities in addition to that of conducting telephone calls, and users frequently use features of their mobile telephone units other than the mobile telephony facility. In the case of a mobile telephone unit which is equipped with an electronic mail (email), Internet, schedule organizer and/or address book feature, for example, the user will desire to be able to access the WWW (World Wide Web) or view his/her schedule and/or address book, etc. whenever and wherever. In addition, many mobile telephone units are composite units integrating a mobile telephone unit and some other product, such as a game machine or a music record/playback device, in a single unit. In such a case, the user will want to be able to play games and enjoy listening to music whenever and wherever.
However, at various locations, such as on trains and other means of public transportation and at medical facilities like hospitals, mobile telephone units must be prevented from transmitting radio waves in order to avoid interference with other equipment. The user is therefore required to turn off the mobile telephone unit power switch. Specifically, the user needs to turn off the power switch of the mobile telephone unit so that the mobile telephone unit does not emit wireless signals for zone shift and call reception. Once the mobile telephone unit power switch has been turned off, however, the user is prevented from using not only the mobile telephone unit's wireless telephony facility but also other facilities such as the email and address book capabilities.
Consideration has therefore been focused on techniques which avoid turning off power for all functions of the mobile telephone unit but which enable only the power to the wireless unit to be turned off.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-225378, for example, teaches a wireless telephone device with a telephone book feature that is equipped with a mode switching key that the user can operate to switch between a mode in which the wireless transmission capability is disabled and the telephone book feature is enabled and a mode in which both are enabled. The user of this wireless telephone device can view the telephone book at a place where prevention of wireless transmission from the mobile telephone unit is required by operating the mode switching key to disable the mobile telephone unit's wireless capability but enable its telephone book feature.
With this wireless telephone device, however, when the user wants to make a telephone call upon temporarily leaving the place where wireless transmission from the mobile telephone unit must be prevented, the user can make the call only after switching the mode of the mobile telephone unit so as to release the wireless unit from the operation-disabled state. Moreover, after switching the operating mode and completing the telephone call, the user must once again switch the mobile telephone unit mode so as to disable the operation of the wireless unit before returning to the place where prevention of wireless transmission from the mobile telephone unit is required.
In the mobile telecommunications device and storage medium recorded with a program taught by Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-40970, wireless transmission from the mobile telecommunications device is disabled between an input and cancellation of a transmit-disable command by the user, and when the length of the transmit-disabled period has been set, the user is asked to decide whether or not the transmit-disabled state is to be continued when the transmit-disabled period which is clocked by a timer expires.
The user of this mobile telecommunications device can set the transmit-disabled period so as to be periodically asked whether the operation-disabled state of the wireless unit should be continued. In order to release the wireless unit from the operation-disabled state, however, the user is required to conduct an operation for instructing the mobile telecommunications device not to continue the operation-disabled state. Moreover, the periodic inquiries may occur at a time which is inconvenient for the user, such as when the user is about to make a telephone call. Although this reference says that the wireless unit of the mobile telecommunications device can be put in the operation-disabled state in response to a control signal (special low-power signal or the like) that is produced by a transmit-disable request device, current mobile telecommunications devices are not equipped with such a transmit-disable request device, and provision of the device would involve additional cost and labor.
As discussed above with regard to the prior art, with conventional mobile telephone units, a user who wishes to make a telephone call when the wireless unit is in the operation-disabled state is required to conduct a troublesome operation, and the operation of switching the operating state of the wireless unit is not always compatible with the user's desire to make telephone calls. Moreover, with conventional mobile telephone units, the user is required to conduct a troublesome operation when resetting the wireless unit to the operation-disabled state after releasing the wireless unit from the operation-disabled state in order to make a wireless telephone call.
The present invention was made to overcome these problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telecommunications device which is configured to enable setting of a transmit-disabled mode that disables all wireless transmission by its wireless transmitter unit, wherein ease-of-use by the user is improved at the time of calling and at the time of terminating wireless communication.